5 reasons why I love being brown-skinned

Being brown-skinned is something I have struggled with from the very start. From my mother dragging me to beauty parlors to have my skin bleached when I had barely turned 11, to being told by my English teacher during auditions that I couldn’t play Ophelia in the Hamlet play because I didn’t fit in the “fair and beautiful” role (in all honesty I was glad later I didn’t get to play a damsel in distress) and “concerned” cousins and friends telling me that I needed to resort to fairness creams in order to stand out in life.

These daily struggles led me to believe I had a disability of sorts or that I was shrouded by a cloak of ugly. My confidence was shattered. Appearing in pictures that would then be uploaded on social media became a living nightmare. My skincare regime started becoming all about buying these expensive whitening creams.

Brown-Skinned Cultural

These actions were further supported by the fact that while growing up I barely had any brown-skinned cultural references on the TV to draw inspiration from. All my barbies were white. All the brides getting married around me were dolled up in white plaster, sorry, foundation to appear beautiful for their husbands.

The recent wave of woke brown-skinned girls finally speaking out for themselves and bashing fairness creams along with women of color asking for equal representation on all platforms, finally helped me realize the truth that it wasn’t me who was defective. I was brown, beautiful, attractive, warm, and that I counted for such a beautiful contrast that made me naturally stand out against anything and anyone. Also, like Queen B says in one of my favorite songs